Burberry Prorsum / Fall 2012 RTW

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Call it the Downton Abbey effect, but a whiff of Edwardian tweedy country elegance hung in the air at Burberry Prorsum—and not just in the bespectacled dandy looks of will.i.am (sitting front row with War Horse’s Jeremy Irvine, My Week with Marilyn’s Eddie Redmayne, and a flotilla of London’s It girls). Burberry is of course a heritage brand, founded in 1856, and just the sort of emporium that Lord Grantham might have been expected to repair to for a hearty coat to protect him from the London fog and the chill of the grouse moors.

Christopher Bailey, however, mixed upstairs and downstairs with a contemporary spirit of democracy—from his model’s tweedy urchin caps to their dainty lace-up ankle boots.

There was an emphasis on the hips, with giant bellows pockets flanking the fronts of jackets and skirts, or a broad peplum flounce that all added volume below the waist. This created a silhouette that suggested the hourglass figure of the Victorians—or a brisk contemporary reworking of Christian Dior’s nip-waisted New Look silhouette. Ruched velvet ribbon belts, flourished with a bow, cinched those waistlines tighter still.

There was more “street couture” in the thick woolen lace, and in flounces that ruffled down the front of skirts—but a golden zipper used to edge them brought them smack into the twenty-first century.

There was Victoriana too in the shrunken jackets in corduroy or velvet, the leg-of-mutton–sleeved white cotton shirts, the darkly swirling floral Arts and Crafts prints, and in the strips of velvet that edged a peplum ruffle—as well as accessories such as the doctor’s bags that fastened with pale gold owl-, dog-, or goose-head clasps, and the whimsical umbrella handles carved with similar animal motifs.

But the shapely down quilted puffer coats; the sweaters and tees with sweetly childish intarsia or embroidery of sparrows and owls; and the metallic glitter-fringe fabric used for pencil skirts and lean dresses added a thoroughly modern edge.

And to focus all eyes on a forest of those delightful umbrellas, Bailey arranged for Burberry’s very own rainstorm to fall on the clear plastic roof of the show marquee for the finale—and for clear plastic raindrops to tumble on the runway.